Royals
by ClockworkCaptain
Summary: After being convinced by Kind Wu, Korra and Krew go to the Fire Nation to attend a Peace Summit and get a real taste of the world politics.


"Please! You have to come." Wu begged following Korra around the lobby of a White Lilly hotel. "This summit is the perfect venue for the avatar."

Korra groaned. "For the fourth time, no Wu. I'm done fixing the world's problems I'm not needed at some political summit."

"But you're the avatar, you should at least keep up with global politics even if you don't want to intervene." Wu pointed out surprising everyone in the room, including the bell hope.

Korra sighed, "Fine, but only because you're somewhat right and my dad's going to be there and I haven't seen him in a while."

"Yes!" Wu cheered, "I'll meet you and the group at the docks in a week! This is going to be a blast."

"Group?" Korra asked tilting her head.

"Well yeah, the group, the team…Mako and the others. They're coming too. I already asked them and they said yes…believing you were coming too."

Korra sighed. "You're spending too much time with your advisors, they're starting to rub off on you."

"Eh." Wu shrugged, "If it means I get to go on a vacation with my only friends I'll take it."

Korra shook her head feeling a little bad Wu counted her among his friends. "I'll see you at the docks in a week."

.o.

"How could you not tell me Wu asked you to go to the summit?" Korra looked at Asami. "Better yet how could you not question why I didn't tell you I was going?"

Asami shrugged. "I figured that you just hadn't gotten around to it. I mean it's not like you're the best at communication or have a habit of lying and doing your own thing."

Korra opened her mouth then closed it. "I'm going to call Mako and find out what hit him in the head for him to agree to this." She muttered stalking out of the kitchen.

"You know he doesn't hate Wu as much anymore."

"But to be stuck on a boat with him?" Korra shook her head. "He's got to have ulterior motives."

.o.

"I needed a vacation and I figured someone would need to step in if Wu got on your nerves," Mako answered. "I'm a little hurt you think I hit my head to agree."

"Yeah well, you also didn't check Wu's story to see if he was telling the truth about me going to the summit."

"It's an international peace summit in the Fire Nation I kind of figured it goes without saying you were going," Mako said. "Were you not going to go?"

"I-I wasn't, but Wu made a good point that I should. He also said I was his friend and that made me feel a little sad for him."

"Hey, Wu made a good observation! Progress and yes, it is but Wu's gotten to be a much better guy in the past months you might like being his friend…you have to be able to tolerate smoothies and shopping though."

"I don't really like either so I'm going to pass." Korra sighed, "Well I guess it could be worse, I could be going alone with Wu."

"Keep up that positive attitude and this vacation might not end in a murder."

Korra leaned against the wall. "Wow, the enthusiasm in your voice is just overwhelming." She said dryly.

"I know it's almost as excited as yours." Mako shot back. "Look, I need to go do some grocery shopping and you probably have something to do with Asami like help her cook dinner so I'm going to let you go and I'll see you later."

"See yah, good luck! Don't get stabbed in the back while picking out produce."

"Why would someone do that?"

"Oh, you know why. You have enemies." Korra said hanging up knowing it was going to bother Mako for at least an hour.

.o.

"Ok! So we're about to be around a lot of royalty and with that comes a lot of people with a lot of history." Wu flopped down on an overstuffed chair in the ship's lounge. "And that is one topic I know quite a lot about and you will need to know for this summit."

Asami crossed her arms. "I don't Wu, we already know a lot of the Royalty and world leader already. I mean Korra's family controls both water tribes and we know you, Zu Lee, Fire Lord Izumi, all the Air Nomads, and Suyin Beifong, who's left?"

"Most of the Fire Nation royal family."

"We also General Iroh, and Fire Lord Zuko."

"There's more than just them and as they are kindly hosting the Summit in beautiful Sun Set City, you should know the whole clan." Wu made a circular motion with his hands. "And there's a lot of them."

"There's not just General Iroh?" Varick asked blinking.

"Nope," Wu said smiling like a cat who caught the canary. "So along with those you know, Fire Lord Izumi, her father Zuko, and Crown Prince, but there's also the Prince Consort Karrem, Izumi's husband, who is Governor of Kiyoshi Island and was supposed to be the Chief of the Southern Water tribe but gave it up to marry Izumi."

"Huh, I had no idea about that." Korra frowned.

"Yeah, it was quite the political drama a few decades ago," Varrick confirmed. "I wonder if any of that is going to come up during the summit or if Karrem and Tonraq will hit it off since they have a lot in common."

Wu shrugged, "Probably, but back to my point so Izumi and Karrem have four kids, Iroh who you know, his twin sister Ursa, who is rumored to be an earth bender, and the younger twin set Azula, nicknamed Zula a water bender who's known for her dancing, and last but not least Sozin, the youngest a none bender who keeps a very low profile. I think he's currently in school to earn a law degree like his mother but," Wu shrugged, "no one really pays attention to him, I think he's shy."

"That's kind of harsh, naming a kid after a historical villain and then ignoring him," Korra observed crossing her arms. "Also why name her youngest children after villains?"

"Don't know." Wu shrugged, "Lost a bet? And I don't think the family ignores Sozin, just the press. I'm told the family is very close. Now the royal family of Omashu is a very different bag…" Wu continued regaling the group with all the juicy details about the world's greatest party family.

Mako sighed and leaned against the wall tuning Wu out. He had heard most of this before while being Wu's bodyguard and it had not become more interesting. A few minutes later, he was able to slip out and explore the rest of the ship coming upon General Iroh in the bar nursing a gin. He was out of uniform but still retained some air of authority and regality.

"Detective Mako, I didn't expect to see you on this ship."

Mako shrugged, "Yeah well, got to get to Sun Set City somehow and it would have taken too long with an airship."

Iroh nodded, "Yeah the winds would not be in your favor. So you're escorting the Avatar to the summit?"

"Her and King Wu…also President Zuli is here. It's quite a VIP filled cruise."

"Seems to be." Iroh agreed taking a sip of his drink. "I'll have to alert my security team so we don't have any ugly mix-ups." He gestured to the open seat at the table. "Please sit, I dislike drinking alone."

"Thanks." Mako sat down. "You have security?"

"I am the crown prince."

"Yeah, I guess, but I've always figured being a United Forces General you didn't need it."

"I usually don't but on trips like this when I'm not on duty my mother insists that I have at least five people watching my back on this trip."

Mako nodded and looked around. "Um did you give them the slip? Because I don't see any bodyguards."

Iroh chuckled, "Oh they're around, trust me. Since the time of my grandfather, the royal family has been protected by the Kiyoshi Warriors and there are at least three of them in this room right now."

Mako scanned the room trying to figure out which of the several women were warriors in disguise and which were normal passengers.

"I wouldn't look too hard detective, my girls like their anonymity."

"Well most of us do." A beautiful woman with long black hair and bright golden eyes said walking over and handing Mako a drink. "But since you're protecting King Wu I feel you should know at least one of us, just in case you need to exchange information."

"Oh okay, thank you." Mako set the glass down. "Detective Mako a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Sonya, Captain of the Kiyoshi "away team' as it was. It's very nice to meet you properly after all these years. You did quite a good job protecting the King given that you're a detective and not trained for this kind of work. I mean he was only kidnapped once and you got him back."

Mako colored, "Yeah, that wasn't my best moment."

Sonya smiled, "It's ok, you got him back and that was the important part." She looked over at Iroh, "anything I can get you?"

"No, I'm good Sonya." Iroh smiled.

Sonya nodded and walked away. Mako watched as Iroh's eyes followed the Kiyoshi warrior as she walked back to the bar.

"I thought she was supposed to watch your back not the other way around." Mako teased. "So how long have you been a thing?"

Iroh chocked on his drink. "Is it that obvious?"

"That you're sleeping together? Little bit. You look at her like a hungry wolf and her smile is always a little bit more genuine when she's looking at you." Mako shrugged. "Is that supposed to be a secret?"

"Would you want people knowing you're sleeping with Wu?"

It was Mako's turn to chock on his drink. "I'm not sleeping with Wu. Do people really think I'm sleeping with Wu?"

"A few, so you're not an item?"

"No." Mako said flatly, "Until a few months ago I thought I was going to maybe rekindle something with my ex and that did not happen."

Iroh shook his head. "Nope, that did not. Bell was actually miffed you two didn't work out, she and Jade had a bet going on which ex you were going to date again."

"Your bodyguards were betting on my romantic relationships?"

"They don't have a lot to keep them busy while I'm working so they keep themselves busy in other ways." Iroh sipped his drink. "Like spying on famous people. I kind of wish they had kept a closer eye on Kuvira rather than Wu, since she turned out to be the bigger threat."

Mako nodded, "Yeah, there's a hole, in reality, thanks to everyone being more concerned about Wu wrecking the ruined Earth Kingdom versus Kuvira building an army right under our nose."

Iroh nodded, "Definitely not the world's finest moment. Hopefully, this summit won't be reduced to arguing about that for the whole week." He rubbed his temples. "I try to avoid events like this usually."

"And you're not because the Fire Nation is hosting the Summit?"

"That and I do need to learn how to conduct myself. I'll be shadowing my mother during the summit and I haven't seen my family in a while. It will be nice to spend some time with them." He took another sip. "It's been so long since I've seen them."

"Do you miss them?"

"Immensely, I missed my little brother's graduation."

"Oh, so he's got his law degree now?"

Iroh looked amused, "No just college, he's in law school now. Who told you he was pursuing a law degree?"

"Um," Mako gulped, "Wu."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense he would know all about my family. Yeah, my little brother is Korra's age so while he did graduate early he's not that advanced."

"Oh well, I hope you have a good time with your family."

"Thanks, I should."

"So Sun Set City, is there anything to do there?"

"It's a quiet beach town, we used to live there until Mom became the Fire Lord, there are a few legends about a nearby forest but mostly beaches and resort fair."

"Sounds like the perfect place to relax."

"It definitely is that." Iroh agreed holding up his glass, "A toast to peace and quiet."

Mako clinked his glass with his. "I'll gladly drink to that."

.o.

Korra stretched as she walked off the ship on to dry land at last. All around her, her friends stretched and groaned trying to get their land legs back. From somewhere else on the pier a loud engine roared before the sleekest blue convertible Korra had ever seen pulled up a few feet away from the group. A man with black hair pulled back in braid wearing dark glasses looked over at the group and smirked.

"Get in loser." He said pulling his glasses down revealing bright blue eyes.

"Hey, who you calling a loser, you don't know me!" Korra snapped.

The man looked at her. "Well, not you but if the shoe fits I guess wear it." The man looked back up and waved to someone behind her. "Hey, I thought the military prided quick feet and efficiency!"

"Only for privates, officers can take our sweet time," Iroh said walking through the group and throwing his bags into the back seat of the car. "Did mom send you to pick me up?"

"Dad did, mom's busy with stuff, Zula is rehearsing, and Ursa is in the wind," Sozin said cheerfully. "So you get me in all my glory." He smiled putting his hands on his cheeks.

Iroh chuckled, "Does that mean we're stopping for unhealthy food before we get home?"

"You know it!" Sozin cheered before pulling away.

"Well, he was rude," Korra said crossing her arms and looking over at Asami who was smirking. "What?"

"You answered to looser." Asami snorted.

"I was distracted by the satomobile." Korra huffed, "I thought he was talking to me. He was looking at me while talking what was I supposed to think?" She pouted, "I think that jerk beats Tahno for the worst first impression. Come on let's go find our luggage."

"Don't feel too bad Korra, for a moment I thought he was talking to me," Wu said catching up to her.

.o.

Iroh looked over at his brother. "So is everything going ok?"

"Yeah, everything is fine."

"What's going on? Is the 'thing' causing you trouble?"

"The 'thing' is fine," Sozin said through gritted teeth, "The problem is work, our sisters, my cheating ex, classes, and I keep drowning my feelings in ice cream."

"Ah, I see. Well, I have some good news."

"You're moving back to the Fire Nation?"

"No, something better."

"You were able to get those scrolls I wanted."

"Yes, I have those too but something else."

"What?"

"I'll tell you at the restaurant."

"Tease."

"Think of it more like insurance you won't plow us into a wall or something."

"Oh, it's that kind of good news huh?" Sozin looked back at the road. "Interesting."


End file.
